Happy 6th Birthday Ethan!

     Dear Ethan,
I can't believe it's been 6 years since you blessed us with your presence. You have come a long way from being preemie and 3lbs 9oz. I have gotten to watch you crawl, walk, run, learn to talk. I watched you not only become a big brother but a wonderful big brother. Finlay couldn't have asked to have a better brother that you. Last year I took you to preschool and watched you turn from a toddler to a little boy. This year you spread your wings further and started kindergarden. You have shown us how smart you are and made new friends. Now today you graduate kindergarden and turn 6. Tomorrow you will leave kindergarden and prepare to enter into 1st grade. One adventure ends and another one begins. The best part of it is getting to watch you on your journey. You are my wonderful, smart, sweet little boy and I love more with each passing day. Happy Birthday baby boy, may all your wishes come true.

     Love,
     Mom

Conferences!

So we had our first Parent/Teacher conference today with Ethan's teacher. It went really well! At this point he can write his first name, is working on his last (he keeps wanting to leave out a letter lol), can count to 59 consistently, knows all his letters lower and uppercase, he knows the sounds of 14 of the 26 letters, can read 6 of 9 sight words, can recognize numbers 0-10 (and then some), he is improving with rhyming words. As far as behavior goes he is improving. He completes his homework but needs to complete the work he does in class. His biggest issue is focus. He has a hard time focusing on what he needs to do and stop worrying about what others are doing. This goes in conjunction with completing the work he does in school. They are now working on doing work independently and Ethan tends to pay more attention to what others are doing instead of focusing on his own work. To help make that issue better she has him sitting with 3 other kids who tend to keep more to themselves when they are doing school work and that seems to have helped some. She also has come up with a paper that will help Ethan see how well he is doing or not doing on focusing more on his school work.

A few weeks ago we had received a letter in the mail telling us that Ethan is not on track with his reading skills and that if he continues at the pace he's at he will be set up to fail the 3rd grade. We brought this up with his teacher and she said we need to disregard that letter. They were forced to take this test in the 2nd week of school. They had to sit on the computer and answer 29 questions. She said most of the kids struggled just with using the mouse. She was not happy that they were being tested so soon into the school year when so many of them were still having adjustment issues and they hadn't even begun on working independently yet. She assured us that Ethan is doing just fine in reading.

He has been having a bit of a problem with a boy in his class who is a bit of a bully (in my opinion). We have been working with with his teacher to resolve the issue as peacefully as possible. I was unaware that there was a problem until a couple weeks ago. Ethan has never made mention of it to us. A couple weeks ago I was walking Ethan to school and we crossed paths with the kid. When Ethan refused to say hello (I am aware he does not like this kid and does not want to be friends with him) I just explained that he should always say hello back when spoken to. That's when the kid began bad mouthing Ethan to me. I gave him a warning that he was being very rude then I gave him the same tone that I give my own children when they speak to me disrespectfully and told him that my children don't get away with it and neither will he. When I got home I sent an email to the teacher letting her know what had happened. Ethan doesn't want anything to do with this kid so we are doing what we can to keep them separated. If he approaches Ethan at school Ethan will just tell him that he does not want to be friends with him or that he is not allowed to be around him. We had a second incident which was handled. We talked about it with the teacher just to be sure that all seems to be quiet between the 2 at this time. She says she doesn't need to intervene much that Ethan is very good about keeping his distance from this kid (he really doesn't want to have anything to do with him) and that he is very straightforward in telling the kid he wants nothing to do with him. So it appears that the issue has been resolved.

She also let us know that she has been taking extra care to read labels to any snacks that come through the classroom to make sure that they don't have an fake sugars in them. There are 2 other kids with allergies in the classroom so she takes the time to make sure that any brought in treats are OK. She sent home a letter at Halloween asking parents to please not send any treats that have fake sugars, eggs, or milk. One parent sent in sugar free jello so she just gave Ethan an applesauce in place of the jello. She said Ethan is very good about sticking to what we pack in his lunch that he has no interest in what others have in their lunches. He helps pack his lunch each day.  He tells me what kind of sandwich he wants and then he choses between applesauce or yogurt and he gets to pick out his special treat. I usually pack an chocolate almond milk for him to drink. He's eating exactly what he wants so naturally it's all he cares about LOL.

So over all I am very happy with the report we got. He is doing well and is continuing to move forward. We are very proud of how well he is doing.

Here is Ethan's school picture. He is so handsome!

Loving school

School is going fairly well for Ethan for the most part. He is still having trouble at times following directions. Last week he was on green all week. If you're not familiar with the color system green means he had a good day, yellow means he broke 2 rules, red means he had a time out, and blue means that we need to expect a call home or a note from his teacher. So last week was a good week. This week he was on green Mon and Tues, then Weds he was on blue. His teacher sent a note home. He was just not following directions and not doing his school work. Yesterday he was on green so a much better improvement from Weds. He loves his teacher and he seems to be making friends fairly well. I've only met 2 of his friends in passing when coming to get him at school but they seem like they get along well. Ethan tells me how funny they are.

He is still doing gymnastics and he loves it. He's moved up into the kindergarden class so he has a new coach this year. I really like the way she teaches the class. When Ethan acts out to get attention she will turn her back and go onto the next kid instead of feeding into the bad behavior. His last coach would raise his voice and put Ethan in time out which never had any effect on the behavior. The ignoring the bad behavior seems to work better. He responds much better to her way of teaching as well. She takes the time to work with each kid individually if they are struggling with a certain exercise. Ethan responds well to it. He's doing new things this year and it's amazing how quickly he picks up on the new work outs. He has no fear and takes everything and anything on. He is an amazing little boy.

Ethan has his Halloween costume all picked out already. He was all about wanting to be Iron Man a week ago and then while shopping at Costco last weekend I found the coolest Fireman costume and showed it to him and now he's going to be a fireman for Halloween LOL. I was looking for an Iron Man costume but they didn't have any in his size. I found the cutest SWAT costume that would have looked adorable on Fin but they didn't have it in his size (that's OK I might find one on EBay for a lot cheaper). Ethan will get a lot of use out of the Fireman costume since he loves to dress like a Fireman then drive his firetruck around so we will get our moneys worth out of it LOL.

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

5 years ago today at 5 in the morning we were heading to the hospital in labor 10 weeks early. At 10:02pm a beautiful little boy named Ethan arrived into this world weighing 3lbs 9oz. Now that tiny little baby is turning 5. In the fall he will start a new journey in life as he starts kindergarten. I can't believe that 5 years has gone by already. He has grown up so fast! In honor of him turning 5 I made a video that covers the last 5 years. I tried my best to keep it under 15 minutes but it was impossible too many cute pictures. So when you've got 27 minutes to kill take time to watch.

Watch Ethan's Journey in Family  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Ethan's birthday party was Saturday and he had a great day. A couple of his friends from school were there and he was absolutely thrilled to see them. Ever since school let out he has just been missing his friends and teachers like crazy! It's been a rough adjustment for him. It was a total blast he had no problems going to sleep last night. Thank you to everyone who came out and made his party a great time! I will post pictures from it later.

A Preschool Graduate!

It's official! Ethan is a preschool graduate! He finished pre-k on May 15, 2013. He is officially a kindergardener! We got him registered for kindergarden a couple weeks ago. It's hard to believe that he is entering kindergarden already. It was a very bittersweet feeling when I took him to preschool for the last time. It kind of felt like it did the day I dropped him off for his first day. Only this time I didn't cry LOL.

In less than 2 weeks Ethan will be turning 5. This year he is having a construction themed birthday party. Which is funny because his preschool graduation was a construction theme. A perfect fit for him. He is very excited because he invited his friends from preschool. At this point I know of 2 who will be coming but I'm sure more will be there. He will be so excited to see his friends again!

Ethan has had a hard time with accepting that school is over and that he will not be going back to that school. We will be playing outside and he will just suddenly get very sad. I will ask him what is wrong and he tells me that he doesn't want to leave Miss Tiffany and how he just wants to play with his friends. It quite heartbreaking really. He made some good friends this year and he just adored his teacher. I'm hoping that I can get phone numbers and addresses from the friends that come to his party so that I can get him together with them over the summer. One of the girls that he played with actually lives just about 5 minutes away from us so I will definitely be making sure to get him together with her. I try to give him things to do to take his mind off what he is missing but it doesn't help much. It's just not the same. He will make new friends in kindergarden next year but they won't replace the ones he made this year.

I was working on a little movie for him for his birthday and was hoping to have it done by his party but unfortunately my computer died. The hard drive finally went bad. All my pictures and videos were on it. We took it to Best Buy and they are going to attempt to retrieve my stuff. It's going to take some time though. Hopefully they can succeed and I can get it finished up. I was going to post a ton of pics on Finlay's blog as well as I've been horrible about it (my bad) but I will have to wait. So cross your fingers that Best Buy succeeds.

I did however video tape Ethan's graduation program on my phone and that was never put onto the computer so I have fixed it up a little bit and uploaded it to YouTube. I will post it at the end of this post. My videographing was pretty bad due to a Finlay trying to climb on me LOL. So forgive the horrible moving about.

Ethan is still doing gymnastics he's got a couple more weeks until they let out for a couple weeks for summer break. He loves his classes so we will continue him with summer classes. They start at the end of June. They haven't opened up registration yet for summer classes but they should be doing that soon. So I don't know what day he will be going. He will be moving into the 5/6 year old class and they usually have a slightly smaller class. He will still be in the preschool gym though until he is in first grade then he will move to the other gym. He's come a long way since his first day in gymnastics. He used to need help on the bar to flip forwards and now he can do that without any assistance. Last week they were working on flipping backwards and he was able to get halfway over before needing a little assistance. A month ago he couldn't even get his feet folded over the bar. Gymnastics is the perfect place for him to be because he is such a monkey at home. He has taken to climbing the doorways and can get to the top. It took him 2 weeks to figure out how to do it. Miss Heather, one of his preschool teachers, was telling me that when they take the kids out onto the playground that he is impressive on the swingset rings. He does things that most kids his age can't do. She asked me if I had him in any kind of sports so I told her about his gymnastics class and she thought it's a good place for him to be. As long as he continues to enjoy gymnastics we are going to keep him in it.

Here is the link to view the video of Ethan's Preschool Program.

Rough Month

Poor Ethan has had a rough few weeks! A couple weeks ago he was all excited about the "P" party they were going to be having at the school that is his school's pen pals. He had been talking about which pajammas he was going to wear (it was a pajamma party). Then he woke up around 5 in the morning saying that his head was hurting and he was running a fever. He was given some Tylenol and put back to bed. I let him sleep in as late as possible and checked his temp. It was normal. I checked 3 times. He woke up wanting to go to the party so bad. I let him go against my better judgement. I figured since the fever was gone and all he was complaining about was a headache he'd be OK but I was expecting a call from the school, I never got that call. When I picked him up and got him in the car he was saying that his head hurt but he had a good time at the party other than not getting a chance to hit the piñata. I picked up some Sprite on the way home and checked his temp again, normal. Not even 15 minutes after getting home he was sick to his stomach. That lasted 12 hrs then the next day he was just a lump on the couch. I let him lay in the toy room watching Netflix (Finlay couldn't get in there to bug him) all day. By the next day he was acting like himself. Later that night he was complaining that his ear hurt but said nothing more that Saturday. But Sunday the fever was back and his ears were bugging him so Matt took him to Urgent Care and he had an ear infection. He was put on antibiotics for 10 days. He finished that last Tuesday. Then this Weds while having lunch with Matt he was practically crying that his ear was really bothering him. We took him down to audiology and they took a peek and his right ear was angry red. So called his Dr and they were able to get him in right away. I was told that the previous antibiotic helped but wasn't strong enough to completely clear it up so he was put on something stronger for another 10 days. He hasn't been complaining the last few days and he is acting like his normal self so hopefully this round will knock it out.

He's loving school. Getting him out of bed in the morning to get around is a chore but once I got him dressed he is looking forward to getting to school. He told me that today they were putting acorns on a scale to see how much they weighed. Monday they will be doing paper airplanes and measuring how far they go when thrown. That was supposed to be done today but I guess they didn't get to it. From the conversations I have with his teacher when I pick him up he's doing very well and is ahead in class. He's a smart one!

Ethan has been a awesome big brother. He has been helping Fin learn to walk (see Fin's blog) and he has so much fun playing with his little brother. He is always asking me when I pick him up from school  if Finlay missed him while he was gone. When I drop him off he always has to give Finlay hugs and kisses and before I can buckle him into the car the first thing he does is hug and kiss Finlay and tell him that he missed him. It's just so cute and I love it! At home they have fun having lunch together and after lunch playing with the cars. It's fun to just sit and watch them play sometimes.

Doing Well

We had a conference today with Ethan's teacher, Miss Tiffany. She had nothing but praise for him. She showed us how he was writing his name in the beginning and it was pretty much nothing but scribbles and now only 2 months later he is writing his name with very little to no help at all. She said he has a tendency to make his T's gigantic or to add an extra line to his E's but overall he is doing very well with it. They are working on getting him to count to 20 and at this time he is able to count to 15 so he's almost there. She does an activity with him where she will have him pick 10 blocks from the bin. After he picks out 3 she will stop him and ask him how many does he have and he doesn't recount he tells her 3 and continues and then at 5 she will ask how many does he have now and he will instantly tell her 5 and give her a look like "Why are you stopping me?" The point of the game is so they don't just straight count it distracts them a bit and makes them think a little. He knows all his colors and shapes and does matching very well. His cutting is well he is capable of following the lines. When it comes to his letters he gets confused on the lower case letters and only seems to recognize 9 of the 26 lower case letters but he knows his upper case well. She said that over all he is excelling quickly, he is moving quicker than most of the kids. He should do very well in kindergarden as long as he has a teacher who will continue to push him. Socially he is doing well. He has his days where he is a little shy or stand offish but he warms up once they do news time where the kids get to share their news. It's his favorite part of the morning. So it was a good meeting. We will have another conference around April when the schools will be getting ready to do the kindergarden readiness test.

On Tues the 20th the school will be doing their Thanksgiving feast. They will be dressing as the Indians, the preschool class will be dressed as Turkey's, and their pen pals from Happiness Is (right here in the point) will continue the tradition of coming as the Pilgrims. The kids will be doing a little parade and they each will bring their favorite food to share with everyone. They are making their costumes during class time. It will be interesting to see if Ethan actually wears it. He's having fun making the costume but he wants to go as Captain America LOL. He isn't getting that this isn't the same thing as Halloween. They are learning all about the Pilgrims and how the Indians taught them how to live off the land. They even have a teepee in the classroom for the kids to play in.

Don't forget his fudge sale ends on the 26th. If you are interested in buying fudge from him refer to the post I made about it. I need to have the money in hand by the 25th for him to turn in on the 26th.

Fundraiser

Ethan's school is selling Toledo Zoo fudge for a fundraiser now through Nov 26. If you are interested in buying some fudge please let me know what you want and I will put you down for it. I must have money in hand to be turned in by Nov 25 so he can turn it in on the 26th.

Here is a list of what they are selling and a price list.

Chocolate
Chocolate Nut
Vanilla Nut
Peanut Butter
Snowman
Cashews
Saltwater Taffy


Prices are as follows
$7.50/8oz Fudge
$11.00/12 oz Fudge
$14.00/16 oz Fudge
$17.00/ 1 lb Gift Tin of Fudge
$7.50/8oz Snowman (Chocolate or Peanut Butter only)
$10.00/8 oz of Cashews
$18.00/16 oz Cashews
$21.00/1 lb tin of Cashews
$4.00/8 oz Salt Water Taffy
$7.00/1 lb Salt Water Taffy


Please make checks out to: Precious People Preschool

Again I must have the money in hand by the 25th so he can turn it in on the 26th. Orders will be delivered on Monday Dec 17. If you are interested please let Matt or I know.

Loving School

This is Ethan's 2nd full week of school and he is having a blast. Last week they were working on finger paintings and when he came out today he handed me his painting and told me that he had made it especially for me. I of course hung it on the fridge the moment we got home. His teacher, Miss Tiffany, told me when she brought him to the car today that they were doing a project on the light table that involved shaving cream. Ethan went hog wild. She had fun cleaning him up but she warned me that I might find shaving cream on him LOL. I told her if it involved being allowed to make a massive mess Ethan will be the first one in line. He definitely had fun and he smells like shaving cream LMAO.

Last week Ethan started feeling sick and he ended up not being able to go to school on Friday because he was running a fever. He was very upset that he couldn't go. He just loves his class so much that not being there made him sad. I am so glad that he is having fun.

PreK

It's official! Ethan is in PreK. His first day of school was yesterday. I walked him in and helped him find his cubby and empty his book bag then I let the teacher take over. It was a quick hug and kiss and I walked away (crying). Ethan on the other hand barely noticed that I walked away. There was so much going on he was too distracted. When I picked him up and his teacher brought him to the car she said he did fantastic that there were no problems at all. She mentioned that as they were packing up to leave he told her that he was starting to get bored and wanted to go home. She told him that was good because they were packing up to leave. He was just bored because the teachers had stood them in line under their name tags in the hall and made sure that the right book bag was going home with the right kid so they weren't doing anything. I guess he asked her one time where his mom was and she just told him that his mom would be there to pick him up soon and then directed him to an activity and that was that. He had no tears when he realized I was not there he just accepted it. I tried to get him to tell me what he did in school but he said he couldn't remember LOL. The only thing he told me was that he played on the swings and that a boy hit him and Miss Tiffany put that boy in time out. I have no idea what was going on when the other kid hit him and we aren't making a big deal out of it. I have already told Ethan that Friday when I take him to school I am just going to go through the drop off line that his first day was the only day I was going to walk him in. The school is in a church and the hallway to the preschool part is narrow so they don't want much foot traffic going through it for good reason. The way the drop off line works is the parent pulls right up to the doors and one of the 3 teachers will come out and safely take the child into the building. At the end of the day they look at the number that parents were given at the parent/teacher meeting a few weeks back and match that number to the number attached to the childs book bag and bring the child out by the hand and put the child in their seat. The only thing they ask of the parents is if the kid needs help getting buckled just pull the car down the driveway and off to the curb so they can keep the line moving. They don't want the line to get too long and possibly block up the church parking lot. It works out very well especially if you have another child with you. That way you don't have to get them out and then back in. I liked it yesterday because Finlay was sleeping so I didn't have to disturb his little nap. It's a pretty efficient way of keeping the kids safe. Ethan will only be going 3 days a week (MWF) and class is from 9-11:30. There are 2 classes one for the 3/4 year olds and the other is PreK for the ones who will be going to kindergarden next year. They fill that 2.5 hours with a lot of activity at 9 they go outside to play to help burn some energy then at 9:15 they do hand washing and snacks. The rest of the time is filled with story time, song time, news time (where kids can share any interesting things they want), they do an experiment, play with a purpose, and finally clean up and pack up. Each segment lasts about 15 minutes because at the age of 4 that's about the length of their attention span. It helps keep them from getting bored. Also twice a week each kid will get one on one time with the teacher where they will work on skills they need to have for kindergarden. At the end of the year the teacher will do a mock kindergarden readiness test and if there is anything they are struggling with then she will work on those skills and make sure they can do everything proficiently. He is going to have a fun year.

Ethan started the Fall session of gymnastics last week. They had a week off between the Summer and Fall sessions so he was excited to be back in the class. His Fall class is huge. We counted 11 kids. Because there are so many kids there are 2 instructors for the class. One instructor runs the warm ups on the mat and then they split up the kids into 2 even numbered groups. Fortunately Ethan ended up with Rob who was his coach over the summer. When I signed Ethan up for the Fall I was very specific in making sure that Ethan stayed in Rob's class. We like the way he runs the class and Ethan responds very well to him. I am thinking that the office worker made a note of that to Rob so that when the class got split he took Ethan into his instruction. Ethan likes Rob, if Rob has to yell at him to get him to do something right Ethan gets upset because he doesn't like it when his coach is upset (too bad he can't have that attitude at home). Between gymnastics and school Ethan is going to have a fun filled year.

Summer Living

Summer is definitely Ethan's season, you can tell by his tan! He has been spending a lot of time outside this summer playing and swimming in the pool. He's been in the pool so much I swear he is going to turn into a fish! He went over to Uncle Brian's a week ago and he was all about diving under the water and showing off his doggy paddling(which he taught himself). By the time he got out of the pool he was nothing more than a giant prune. I bought him a pair of swim goggles to use in our pool, as he likes to dive for his toys, and he will put them on his forehead and tell me that is how the swimmers wear theirs (he watched the Olympic Trials) and that he has to wear his the same way. 

Last week he finally got to start gymnastics. His first 2 classes were cancelled due to the extreme heat. He had been watching the gymnastics Olympic Trials and so he was super excited about starting gymnastics. We did try to tell him that he was just in a beginners class and that he was going to be learning tumbling. He did so-so at his first class last week. It's a 45 minute class for the 3-4 age group. They start the class with some simple stretches. Ethan had never done them before so he had no idea what to do he just kind of stood and watched. The instructor tried to help him but Ethan didn't totally trust him and he was all about wanting to go on the bars and the rings (all set for the small children). After the stretched the instructor took them to a low bar and had them work on hanging while lifting their feet off the ground. Ethan did not want to stay put and he was asking the instructor a lot of questions. Then it was on to doing some forward rolls, hanging on the uneven bars (just the lower one) and walking a balance beam. Ethan did not want to stay with the class and twice the instructor took him aside to remind him to do what the class was doing. Then it was off to the parallel bars, jumping from one colored square to another, a backwards roll and finally the trampoline. Ethan again was not listening and was reminded to stay with the class and the instructor pointed towards the door (we think he was saying either listen or leave). Finally it was a log roll to a balance mat to a backwards roll, to a head stand and then the rings. Ethan did the rings once while the others did them a few times. He was skipped because he wouldn't stay in line. Towards the end of the class we think it was more because he was just getting too hot. We noticed he was wiping at his forehead a lot and his cheeks were very red. He was slowing down too. After class ended the kids all get a stamp on their hands (just something fun for all their work) and were given a paper with some simple things they can do at home. We have been working with Ethan on his exercises every day so that when he goes to his next class he will know how to do them. He said he thought the instructor was mean but we could see the instructor and he never yelled nor showed impatience with Ethan, he just wasn't happy that he couldn't get his way. This is Ethan's first structured class and he was just overwhelmed with the things to do. While we watched the class we spoke with a mom whose daughter has been doing this for a few months and she was saying that her daughter was the same way her first few classes and by her working with her on the exercises at home and sticking to the classes she settled into the routine. We have been talking to Ethan about listening to the instructor and letting him teach him the proper ways of tumbling and how he needs to do what the rest of the class is doing. We are hoping that he will settle down more now that he knows how it all works and that he has an idea of what to do. I think he was also a little disappointed that he wasn't going to be flipping and tumbling on the bars and beam. He thought he was going to be like the Olympians he saw on t.v. We did try to prepare him that it wasn't like that but for a 4 yr old that's a hard thing to grasp. 

I have him super excited about the Olympics and how we are going to watch the gymnastics and cheer on the USA. I am looking forward to watching it with him this year. The last time the Olympics he had only been home from the NICU for a few days. This means a lot that I get to watch with him this time. I think he will enjoy some of the Olympics. 

Slap Happy

We took Ethan to see Cirque Du Soleil Quidam on Friday. He loved it! In fact I have never seen him so slap happy (literally). There was this one act where the guy is a mime and the first time he was on the stage he brought a red rose and gave it to a girl in the audience. The whole plot of this act was to woo her.   Ethan was laughing so hard at him that he was rocking back and forth slapping himself on the knees. I'm not sure which was more humerous the act or my son. In the second half of the show the mime was back and this time making a movie using audience members. Ethan about laughed himself off the chair. He was slapping the arms of the seat and himself. I have never seen him think anything was that funny but I found him so amusing (of course the act was hilarious too). It was so much fun taking him. We saw in an advertisement that Barnum & Bailey: Dragons is coming to the Huntington Center in Oct so we are planning on taking him to that too (hope there aren't any clowns they are creepy LOL).

Ethan had a ton of fun at his birthday party last week. I think the highlight of it for him was the turtle that my brother found in the road. He had a blast playing with the turtle and his cousins. He just loves the things that he got. We've been working with him on how to swing his baseball bat so he can hit the ball and Matt has been trying to get him to not swing his golf clubs like a bat LOL. He likes to follow Matt around the yard with his wheelbarrow and help weed the yard with his gardening set. It's really super cute when he does that. He just loves working with his daddy. We gave him his fire truck power wheels after we had dinner later that day. He loves it. Unfortunately we discovered that the siren doesn't work, the radio was broken, and the water pump doesn't work. I contacted the manufacturer and they are replacing all those parts. I have the siren and water pump already but the radio is on back order so as soon as it comes in they will ship it to me. That's what I get for having to buy a floor model. They are no longer making the fire truck so the stores only had the floor models left. I was desperate to get him that truck he's been wanting it for a while now. We've taken him for some walks around the area and to Fritzie Freeze in his truck to help him learn to get a handle on it. I have him practice in the driveway during Finlay's naps. This morning he was driving Finlay up and down the driveway (it was cute that he did that for his brother). I think he ended up have a great birthday this year.

It's still hard to believe that he is 4 already. In a few months he is going to be starting school. He is growing up so stinking fast.

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

Dear Ethan,
     4 years ago today you made your way into this world. It was 5:30 in the morning when I was headed to the hospital with you in labor at only 30 weeks pregnant. At 10:02 at night you graced us with your presence weighing a whopping 3lbs 9oz and you were only 16.5 inches long. In the last 4 years you have become an amazing little boy. You have brought so many smiles to our lives and so much joy. I can't believe that you are now 4 years old it doesn't seem like that much time has gone by. I hope that you had a great birthday and that we made all your birthday wishes come true. Happy Birthday my Angel Pie we love you so very much.


Mommy & Daddy

For my Mom

Hey Mom!!

     For Mother's Day I decided that we were going to take you to "Pancake Warehouse." I worked hard on convincing daddy that that's where you wanted to go. I wanted to do something special with you. Thank you Mom for putting up with my orneriness and my temper tantrums. I love you so much mom you are the best!!

Love your favorite older son,
                 Ethan

Ethan is going be 4 in just a month! I don't know how that is possible! Wasn't he just a tiny little 3lb baby yesterday? Now he is almost 4, a big brother, and will be starting pre-school in the fall. He has grown up so fast, I'm not sure I am ready for it! I am going to be enrolling him in gymnastic classes this summer at Sunrise Gymnastics. He loves to run, jump, and climb so I think it will be perfect for him. Hopefully it will give him something that he can focus his excess energy on.

He has done so well with being a big brother. He likes to check on his little brother when he is napping, always wants to be there during diaper changes, and is so protective of him. He has adjusted to it very well. We've definitely gone through some jealous spots but not as bad as we originally anticipated. He is just an amazing big brother.

Ethan enjoyed Whitmer's musical last week. He kept looking for Macey but she wasn't in it this year (had to drop out) but she was ushering so he still got to see her. He probably would have loved it more if she had been up on the stage b/c he loves to see her performing (he loved her in the Fall play). Today I re-introduced him to The Phantom of the Opera. He didn't last long mostly b/c he just didn't understand what was going on. Someday he will and when he does I look forward to him being my very handsome date to see it live.

Ethan has been enjoying the nice weather, playing outside, riding his bike, and of course Fritzie Freeze. He's really going to be happy when we are able to get the pool set up. He loved it last year. I have a feeling it will come in handy this summer. He's probably going to be one very tan dude from playing outside this year LOL.

Hoppy Easter!!

Ethan is really looking forward to going on his Easter Egg hunt tomorrow morning. He told us today that he wanted to go see the Easter Bunny. Unfortunately he waited until dinner time to tell us. We just didn't make it out to see the Easter Bunny this year which is fine b/c I figured Ethan would not go up once we got there anyways, that's what he did with Santa. A few days ago he saw a bunny in the back yard and so we told him it was the Easter Bunny scoping out places to hide eggs. He went to bed fairly well tonight b/c he wants to make sure the bunny has time to hide his & Finlay's eggs.

I have Ethan pre-registered for school next year. He will be going 3 days a week 9-11:30 at Precious People Preschool. I took him for a tour a month or 2 ago and he had a great time. We sat in on the class and he was invited to join in on the activities. He sat back quietly and watched their little experiment but he was too shy to go to the front of the class and feel. He is going to have a great time next year. It's so hard to believe that he is going to be 4 let alone be in school. I am really going to miss him. He makes me want to pull my hair out all day but yet when he isn't here it's too quiet.

Ethan is just loving having a little brother. He is very protective of Fin and he doesn't like it when people get to close he will literally put his hands on Fin as a way of letting them know they are too close. Lately every time Fin smiles or laughs at him he has taken to going up to him and giving him a kiss and telling me "He is so cute!" I find it absolutely adorable. Yesterday Fin had a blowout in his diaper that required a spray off bath. Ethan came over to help and instead told me "YUCK! Finlay smells bad!" and walked away holding his nose. It was pretty nasty but I about fell over laughing. He is very helpful and likes to show Fin how things work. I wonder how he will feel when he toys are no longer protected from his brother LOL.

Today we went through all Ethan's clothes. I had put away most of his 2T clothes but somehow some of them magically found a way back into his closet. I wonder who could have done that? He does not want to give up his Toy Story pajamma's but they just no longer fit. The tops are now 1/4 sleeves and halters and the pants are knee highs LOL. We managed to talk him into finally letting us get them all put away. I guess I will have to buy him some new toy story jammies LOL. I will be taking him shopping soon to get some new clothes for the summer. He mostly needs pants as his closet is full of shirts and half of them he will probably never wear. He is picky on what he wears so it's easier to just take him and let him pick out his clothes. Besides it gives him a feeling of having some control.

He has discovered a "wonderful" new show on Netflix called The Wonder Pets. Let me put it this way, he thinks it's the best show ever, we on the other hand think completely opposite. He has become obsessed with it. He likes to pretend he is Ming Ming (when he doesn't think he's spiderman climbing the walls) and runs around falling and telling me "ouchie". He definately has some imagination. He just thinks he's sooooooo funny. Sometimes he is. It's a good thing he's cute.

Fun Filled Weekend

Ethan had a great weekend this week. Saturday we went to Costco where he (and his daddy) enjoyed snacking on all the free food. They would spend all day there snacking if I would let them. Then yesterday we met up with Killian and his parents and spent the day at Imagination Station. None of us has ever been there before but it was a good time. The boys had so much fun running around and playing with things. I think their favorite spot was over in the electricity station at a spinning table. They also had a blast with the crane. But the best spot was when they got to shoot tennis balls up to the ceiling. It was so hard to pry them away from that location to go have lunch and of course they both had meltdowns in the cafeteria b/c they didn't want to stop for food. I think just about every kid that came into the cafeteria had a meltdown. After that we headed over to this one area where it was all about psychedelic images. The boys had so much fun in the tilt house and thought it was hilarious watching their parents slam into the walls. When we left we all decided we will be investing in memberships there. It's a great place to go during the winter or on a rainy day. They both are already talking about going back together. I made sure to bring the camera so I would have pictures to post.

Ethan has been enjoying all the nice gifts that he got at Christmas. He's been watching his movies just about every day and he has been playing his Mobigo every day. The Mobigo has really helped him to learn. The other day he was playing the Elmo game I bought him and he was pointing out all the animals on the screen and telling me what they were before the game said the name. Then he was telling me all about fruits. He has started to recognize his letters much better and has been working on his numbers but I swear that child has an aversion to numbers. He would rather play his letters game than deal with numbers. I sure hope he doesn't take after me when it comes to numbers and math. I am horrible with them. He has been enjoying all his books and he likes to read them before going to bed. We read him a story but he likes to sit and look at the pictures on his own and fall asleep looking at a book. He even tries to read to Moose, Penguin, and Frog.

Ethan is growing up so fast! I can't believe that in Sept he will be in pre-school. The other day I was looking through my photo albums on my Facebook page and I came across pictures of him doing his silly face and when he was just learning to walk and I couldn't believe that he was once that small. Of course he has just gotten cuter over the years. Well that and smarter. He has figured out how to open baby gates and the baby locks don't stop him either. Some days I think he might just be too smart for his own good :)

I have already started putting together the team for the March For Babies. It will be April 15 at 5/3 Field. This is our 3rd year walking. The last 2 years it has been so much fun and this year I have 2 reasons to walk. Ethan and Finlay. I sent out e-mails to all last years walkers or contacted them through Facebook. This year we are also participating in the Kickoff. It's on Feb 13 at the Sylvania Playland. It's free you just have to rsvp by Feb 8 which I also sent out e-mails about with all the information and where you can rsvp. It should be a good time. The kids get to play and there are crafts for older kids, free food, and team leaders can collect all their information. We will also get to meet this years ambassador family. It should be a good time. I am looking forward to the walk this year and being able to do it with my 2 beautiful boys.

Ethan's a big boy

I took Ethan to the ped today and he is getting so stinking big! He is 39 inches tall and weighs 34lbs. When the heck did that happen? Wasn't he just 3lbs 9oz yesterday? How did 3 years go by so fast? His Dr was happy with his physical development. She had him tell her the colors of the blocks which he did beautifully on (he knows his colors). She asked him what his favorite animal is. Ethan decided that was the right time to talk through his teeth. He told her Pooh Bear for his favorite animal. I then asked him not to talk through his teeth so she could understand what he was saying so then he starts jumping up and down and tells her again. She still couldn't understand him so I had him tell her one more time and this time he stood still for it. She had no idea what a Pooh Bear was so I told her he was referring to Whinnie the Pooh. She asked him what he had for breakfast and he told her toast and fruit. She asked what kind of fruit and he told her oranges through his teeth. So I corrected him again and he answered properly. Then she asked what he liked to do for fun at home and he rapidly has to tell her that he watches the garbage men pick up dada's garbage. He said it faster than his little mouth can talk so I had him slow down and repeat it at a normal speed LOL. So after she was done checking him out she tells me that she doesn't feel that he is easy to understand when he talks and that she was strongly recommending we get an eval from a Speech Therapist. We got a few opinions from Papa Paul, Grammy B, and Grammy Judy and they all agree that he talks fine but yes at times can be hard to understand. Matt & I know that he has a problem with words like "Please" "Blue" "Cloud" "Black" ect. We also know that his V's and F's sound like B's. We both correct him all the time but these are common issues in toddlers. I think that it will work itself out by the time he starts school next year. So we have decided not to take him into Speech Therapy. We don't feel an eval will hurt but since it's not really a necessity we don't want to bother with it. I would rather see where he is at by the age of 4.

Tues Ethan had an appt with Dr Horner. His phe levels came back this week at 4.1 so he is still right in the target range of under 10. There have been no changes to his diet he is still at  40g of protein a day which right now works for him. In June they want to order a complete nutritional blood panel and then depending on the results of that they might order a Dexascan or they might wait until he is 5. Realistically with all the things he has crashed into and not gotten a broken bone from it I'd like to think he has pretty strong bones LOL. He is one tough little dude.

Busy Ethan!!

Ethan has had a busy 2 days this weekend. Yesterday we took him (& Finlay too) to Frankenmuth. We had a blast at Bronner's where I was in Christmas decoration heaven. We spent 3 hrs walking around and didn't begin to see the entire store. Poor Ethan was on Christmas overload. He didn't know where to begin. It took him 10 minutes and he broke an ornament. He spent the rest of the time strapped into the stroller where he could do less damage. He was pretty cute when Finlay started to fuss from his carrier. Ethan turned around and was giving his little brother hugs and kisses and then kept patting him on the head and holding his hands. That was getting him a lot of attention from some of the workers who were milling around. It is always nice to see him love all over his brother like that. He can be such a good big brother (when he wants to LOL)

Today I took him to see Happy Feet 2 while Finlay was stuck with his daddy. I treated Ethan to popcorn and a small drink (yea I know I spoiled him LOL). He was pretty good for the most part although in the middle of the movie he decided he wanted to crawl around on the nasty floor and try to eat the popcorn he dropped. I think the movie may have been a little long for his attention or they showed way too many previews. I'm going to go with way too many previews. There had to be at least 7 or 8 previews and IMO that is just way too many for a child's movie. Kids are not going to have the patience to sit through that many previews. Towards the end he calmed down a bit and sat and watched the rest of the movie. He liked all the singing and dancing. It was a nice little outing for the 2 of us. Before we left he wanted to bring Finlay with us. He wanted to watch the movie with his brother. Too cute. When we left the theaters he wanted to save the rest of the popcorn for his daddy so we took it home. I don't think Matt really wanted the popcorn but he ate some anyways b/c Ethan wanted him to have it. Ethan spent a little bit of the afternoon outside helping his daddy finish putting up the lights. Every time we try to get the outside lights up it rains. Go figure. Mother Nature must not want our house to look pretty for Christmas this year.

As I write this Ethan is wrestling with daddy. I hope Matt is able to wear that child out b/c he has more energy than he knows what to do with. I'm sure Matt will get worn out before Ethan does. Amongst all the noise Finlay is sleeping through it all. Fin is going to be a good sleeper since he has big brother Ethan to sleep through.

I got Ethan's mobigo ordered. I found a decent deal on amazon.com. Every one is selling it for $60 but I got it for $50. Santa is working on finding a decent DVD player for Ethan's playroom. We don't want to end up with one like we had a while back where it played the DVD's but half the time it wouldn't eject them or it scratched them up. Ethan is going to have a electronic Christmas this year LOL. I am really excited to be getting him the mobigo. It's pretty cool, his friend Killian has it and he learned his alphabet in a couple days and now is already adding and subtracting (he's only 4) so it's going to be a great thing for Ethan. As much as Ethan loves the ABC game on Matt's Ipod he will love this.

We've been getting a lot of inquires of what Ethan needs or wants for Christmas. He really doesn't need anything. He's getting the mobigo from us and a DVD player and I've already suggested the games for the mobigo to someone else. He has become picky about his clothes so I don't need anymore clothes for him that are just going to hang in his closet and never get worn. He is more than good on jammies and I am going to be buying him snow boots in the next couple weeks. Board games were already suggested to someone and I don't need any more toys to add to the already overflowing toybox. He is specific on what toys he wants to play with the rest just get thrown out of the way and just make a big mess for me to have to clean up. I don't have a lot of storage space and the living room is being cluttered with Finlay's things. He's really into trucks. Lately he has taken an obsession to excavators. He has a book that he loves that is all about bulldozers, excavators, and dump trucks. He loves to sit and look at that book. He will sit and teach Finlay all about them (because Finlay cares oh so much about them LOL). There isn't much to suggest for him (or Finlay) They both have everything that they need and want. Ethan has a piggy bank and loves to put money in it. When it gets full we make a trip to the bank and he get's to deposit it to his college fund. Otherwise I don't have much to suggest.

Prematurity Awareness Month

Just to make you aware, November is Prematurity Awareness Month. Each year 1 in 8 babies will be born prematurely. Both Ethan and Finlay were born prematurely. Ethan was 30 weeks 1 day and he weighed 3lbs 9oz. Finlay was 35 weeks 4 days and he weighed 5lbs 12oz. Please help the March of Dimes raise money. If you would like to make a donation you can do so at the following link:
https://www.marchofdimes.com/giving/support_general.html?src=mod11_EDDpamFT_111101
It all goes for a good cause. The March of Dimes is also selling special Awareness products as well to raise money. You can go to the following link to purchase those products if you are interested:
http://www.awarenessproductsonline.com/mod_individual

Now that I got my sales pitch (LOL) out of the way onto other things.

Ethan is loving being a big brother. Finlay is very lucky to have Ethan for his big brother. Ethan likes to hold his little brother, help feed him, and is very loving. He likes to give him kisses and hugs all the time. Ethan is always talking about "When Finlay gets bigger....." and then tells us what they are going to do together. Last night it was "When Finlay gets bigger he is going to go trick or treating with me!" It was very cute that he is looking forward to going trick or treating with Finny.

Speaking of trick or treating, Ethan had a blast last night. Matt took him this year (although I really wanted to do it b/c I wanted the time with Ethan) and they went with Aunt Robin, Uncle Seamus, and kids. Ethan dressed as Spiderman (like every other toddler in the neighborhood LOL). They were gone for about an hour and when he got back he was having fun passing out candy to all the little spooks who came up our driveway. He was very generous giving out handfuls of candy to the little spooks. A few times the groups were just too large for Ethan to handle on his own so Matt had to help. If Ethan didn't get to give candy to some of the kids he would get very upset and throw the candy that was in his hands onto the ground and then put his hands over his face before picking the candy up. He just really wanted to give out the candy. It was pretty cute. He was telling me all about the houses he went to and the people he saw. He was so excited. We had a pretty good turn out of kids last night. I'd say we probably had 100-120 kids come to the door. Unfortunately I bought a ton of candy this year so we wouldn't run out (the last few years we have run out by like 7 at night and that's only giving 1-2 pieces of candy to each kid!). Unfortunately I bought a few bags too many and now we have a ton of left over candy LOL. We'll go through it all and Matt can take some to the vultures at work :-) Today Ethan doesn't want to take off his Spiderman costume. He has been running around all day with it on. I guess he isn't ready for Halloween to be over with.